Getting Ready For 2010 Event Season - Driver's Seat

Boy how time flies-here I sit writing my August editorial on March 21 getting ready for the 2010 event season and the really good cruising weather to begin in earnest. Grant and I have been planning our travel and look forward to scoping out all the fresh classic pickups that'll be hitting the road soon. It's that travel that enables us to see much more than the local SoCal iron during the off-season when we're stuck here close to home. Not long after we had hammered out a plan and picked the cities and events we'd be visiting in the near future Grant caught wind of an internal opportunity here at CLASSIC TRUCKS central. Apparently our parent company (Source Interlink Media) had decided to consolidate the whole workforce, whom had until now been spread out over many locations here in Southern California to just a few choice cities. One of the results of this reorganization would be the addition of a second Source Interlink Tech Center (our own company garage/workshop). Along with this addition came an opening for a second Tech Center technician-and you may surmise where this is leading-Grant took a chance and threw his hat into the ring hoping to trade his laptop and camera for a ratchet and a TIG welder.

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As luck would have it, and due to his mechanical and fabrication talent Grant won out over some stiff competition and was awarded the position-great for him, not so great for us. That said, it looks like I'll be muddling along for an issue or two while I look for someone to fill a pretty big pair of shoes. I hope you'll all join me in wishing Grant the best in his new endeavors-hopefully he'll still find a bit of time here and there to contribute a tech story or feature once in a while.

On a lighter note I've finally begun work on my '57 Chevy project. As is usual I did wander from my original plan between the time I got a hold of it and actually ordered my first batch of parts and started swingin' wrenches. As you may recall I'd mentioned I was thinking of going with a Mustang II-based front suspension setup and parallel leaves out back. Well, I ended up choosing a Total Cost Involved Engineering street rod-style IFS setup, utilizing tubular control arms and coilovers and a coilover/four-bar rear system-so much for making a plan and sticking to it eh? At this point I'm working diligently to get the IFS installed in time to make it into this issue. If I do you'll get to see a step-by-step independent front suspension install in the environment you're all familiar with-a run-of-the-mill home garage! No fancy lifts or equipment, just a floor jack, a set of jackstands, a tape measure, a bunch of handtools, and my prized possession, my HTP MIG welder.

I'll do my best to get it handled in time, and I'll hopefully follow up next month with the installation of a 9-inch and the four-bar setup. So wish me luck, I'm off to hit the garage! See ya next month!